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Fujin, John Dodelande’s real estate company involved in the development of the Georgian tourism sector

12 April 2021 Comments (0) Business, Europe

John Dodelande Fujin

If John Dodelande began his professional career with a passion for contemporary Chinese art, after having developed a leading agro-industrial activity in the Caucasus region (Georgia), he is today one of the pioneers of an ambitious real estate developments company called Fujin.

Georgia is a country where European and Asiatics cultures meet, and have been blending harmoniously for thousands of years. Regarded as Europe’s green zone and ranked seventh in the World Bank’s 2020 index on ease of doing business, with a well-developed infrastructure and a skilled workforce, this “European jewel” has been determined in recent years to becoming one of the most influential tourist areas on our continent. 

And John Dodelande quickly understood this. His goal? Make this country an attractive territory for investors. This is why this businessman of the new generation built Fujin, a hotel development company based in Tbilisi which links the country from one end to the other. 

If Fujin has been able to rapidly develop its activity in order to attract numerous European or Chinese investors, always with the aim of further developing the Georgian tourist sector, it is thanks to the large network of influential contacts along the Silk Road, but above all,  to the unequalled experience of its director in the creation of partnerships. And even today, large-scale projects are still pouring in.

Among them is the development of the Tbilisi Airport Hotel. With this new 39,000 square-metre complex, the construction of a 120-room Ibis International Hotel and the opening of different local shops, the aim is clear: to create a new travel and entertainment centre in order to take advantage of the exponential increase in the number of tourists travelling through the country in the long-term. 

John Dodelande’s projects also include the development of a ski resort.  Thanks to the new road from Tbilisi, to be completed in 2023 and which will reduce travel time from the airport to two hours, this all-season destination, should attract a larger flow of travellers curious to discover all of Georgia’s breathtaking landscapes.  

We hope that this businessman will bring new surprises for the coming year! 

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South African Netcare gives up on British health prospects

28 March 2018 Comments (0) Actualites, Africa, Europe, Health

(Reuters) – South African private healthcare operator Netcare drew a line under its ambitions in Britain on Wednesday, saying it would exit the market due to difficult trading conditions.

Netcare shares were up 7.7 percent at 1349 GMT following the announcement by South Africa’s third-largest private hospital chain, which has been in Britain for a decade through a controlling stake in BMI Healthcare.

The company, which in September made an all-share offer to buy out minority BMI Healthcare shareholders said it was making the move because trading conditions “remained difficult” across the private healthcare market.

It said a poor performance by BMI Healthcare was the result of National Health Service (NHS) demand management initiatives and weaker private medical insurance demand.

Netcare said in November it would restructure its British operations, after reporting a drop in annual profit due in part to belt-tightening by Britain’s publicly funded healthcare system.

The NHS, which has been operating with an over 1 billion pound deficit and a shortage of beds and staff, has been seeking help from private companies such as BMI Healthcare, Spire Healthcare and Nuffield Health.

However, the total NHS caseload at BMI Healthcare dropped by 4.4 percent year-on-year for the 5 months to the end of February due to “stringent demand management strategies” Netcare said.

Netcare expects the core earnings (EBITDA) margin in the British business to be between 0.8-1.2 percent in the first half of 2018, down from 5.2 percent in the prior period.

Netcare reiterated that underlying trading EBITDA margins across the group are expected to remain broadly flat in the first half of 2018 from a year earlier.

 

(Reporting by Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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European stocks, oil slide as growth fears add to Brexit pressure

16 June 2016 Comments (0) Business, Europe, Latest Updates from Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares hit a four-month low on Thursday as banks dropped sharply, while oil prices headed for a sixth session of losses after the Bank of Japan refrained from further stimulus and the U.S. central bank struck a cautious note.

U.S. stock index futures were down around 0.4 percent, indicating a lower Wall Street open.

Sterling hit a two-month low against the euro, underscoring worries that Britain, the world’s fifth-largest economy, will vote to quit the European Union on June 23.

According to an Ipsos MORI survey, British support for Brexit hit 53 percent, the highest for the “Leave” campaign recorded by the pollster in more than three years.

A vote to end Britain’s 43-year-old EU membership would spook investors, undermining decades of European integration and placing a question mark over the future of the United Kingdom and its $2.9 trillion economy.

Concerns over Brexit, in combination with dimmed expectations on global growth, have driven investors towards safe-haven assets such as German bunds and gold, and out of oil and stocks.

Euro zone banking stocks dipped to near four-year lows, with Deutsche Bank, down 2.8 percent, and Credit Suisse touching record lows.

“The global economic and political outlook is dark,” said Chirantan Barua, an analyst with Bernstein. “Brexit is fuelling uncertainty and will have ripple effects across Europe. With so much uncertainty, why would you buy a bank stock now?”

Brent crude prices, which last week hit their highest this year, have fallen every day since June 8, dropping more than 8 percent in all.

Germany’s 10-year bond yield fell to a record low as fading expectations of U.S. rate hikes this year provided further fuel to a global bond market rally.

Spot gold climbed 1.4 percent, close to a two-year high.

Earlier in the day Asian markets were firmly in “risk-off” mode, with the yen surging to a 20-month high against the dollar and the Nikkei down more than 3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2 percent.

Benchmark equity indices across Europe followed suit with Italy’s FTSE MIB down 1.6 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 fell 0.7 percent.

Shares of UBS and Credit Suisse fell 1.3 percent and 2.8 percent respectively after the Swiss National bank said both banks were likely to need to raise an extra 10 billion Swiss francs to meet new leverage requirements.

 

 

(By Vikram Subhedar Additional reporting by Atul Prakash in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Keith Weir and John Stonestreet)

 

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Bouygues, Movenpick to invest 55 million euros in luxury hotel in Abidjan

22 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Europe, Latest Updates from Reuters

abidjan

(Reuters) – French company Bouygues and Swiss group Movenpick will team up with Ivorian firm Saprim to invest 55 million euros ($61.56 million) on a luxury hotel in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, the firms said on Monday.

Work on the new five-star hotel will begin in the next six months and is expected to be ready within 30 months, or by the end of 2018, according to a statement by the three companies.

“The cost of the hotel is around 55 million euros of which most will be financed by Saprim and Bouygues,” said Jean-Gabriel Peres, chief executive officer of Movenpick hotels and resorts.

Four years after the end of a civil war, economic powerhouse Ivory Coast’s coastal city of Abidjan is booming and its hotels are often fully-booked.

The hotel and tourism sector currently accounts for 4.8 percent of Ivorian GDP versus 0.6 percent in 2011.

(By Ange Aboa, Reuters)

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Bollore invests 30 mln euros in Ivory Coast-Burkina rail link

10 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Europe, Latest Updates from Reuters

bollore rail

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Bollore has invested 30 million euros ($33.6 million) to buy trains for the freight and passenger line it operates between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, the French company said.

Landlocked Burkina Faso relies partly for its exports and imports on the ports of its southern neighbour Ivory Coast, the biggest economy in French-speaking West Africa. It also uses ports in other neighbours Ghana and Togo.

“We have invested around 30 million euros to acquire trains, including six received today,” Lionel Labarre, director of Bollore Africa Logistics, said on Wednesday.

“We are still waiting for nine locomotives that will add to the 20 that are already in service,” he said, adding that Bollore would also develop the station in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main city.

Trains take about 36-hours to do the 1,260-km (787-mile) journey between Abidjan and Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, and carriages are often packed with people, trade goods and animals being carried to market.

Bilateral trade between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast hit 290 billion CFA francs ($495 million) in 2014, up from 165 billion in 2011, Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said at a ceremony to mark the arrival of the six new engines.

Most of the trade runs via rail and road links. Cargo traffic between the two countries stood at 610,000 tonnes last year, up from 402,000 tonnes in 2011, Duncan said.

Developing the rail line is a strategic priority for Ivory Coast and a tool for regional integration, said Duncan, adding that the country was aiming for 2 million passengers a year in the next few years up from 300,000 now.

Bollore has operated the Ivory Coast-Burkina Faso railway since 1995 and has recently been awarded a concession for a rail link between Niger, Benin and Togo.

 

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Glencore reins in debt as commodity price slump persists

7 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Europe, Latest Updates from Reuters, UK

By Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo

(Reuters) – Mining and trading company Glencore acknowledged on Monday the severity of the global commodity market slump as it suspended dividends and said it would sell assets and new shares to cut heavy debts built up through years of rapid expansion.

The London-listed company came under pressure to cut its net debt of $30 billion, one of the largest in the industry, as prices for its key products, copper and coal, sank to more than six-year lows. (more…)

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